Only this time it's a cop shooting himself: VIDEO: Former GPD Officer Files Lawsuit After Gunstore Incident A former Glasgow police officer is suing a Barren County gun store after being handed a loaded gun from under the counter and accidentally shooting his finger off. According to a civil lawsuit filed Friday, former Glasgow police officer Darrell Smith went into Barren Outdoors back in March and asked to see a .380 caliber handgun. He then held the gun after receiving it from under the counter. Smith began to examine the gun and then cocked it. The gun was actually loaded and fired, shooting off part of Smith's index finger. Smith's attorney, Alan Simpson, said the incident caused him to lose his job as a police officer, and the suit is to make up for income he's lost. "He's permanently disfigured. He went through a lot of pain and suffering. He's gone through several surgeries. He's got a lot of medical bills that have to be paid. It ended his career and he's going to have a lot of lost income." The lawsuits claims the Barren Outdoors employee didn't do a safety check on the gun, and therefore Smith is suing for negligence. ---------------- Video at the link above. Seriously? A cop who watches while a safety check is obviously not done, handles a gun without doing his own safety check, and then wants to sue? I guess he's just another responsible gun owner/user.
Two major amateur mistakes here - leaving a gun loaded, and not checking that a gun is unloaded. Pretty fucking simple really.
Good he lost his job. At least he won't be accidentally killing someone in the line of duty since he cannot handle basic firearm safety. Perhaps something a little less complicated for him might be in order. He could be a nerf inspector, or a plushie salesman. I don't think they kill anyone because of complete ignorance and stupidity. Oh, and it is good it was only him who lost a finger when he quite erroneously handled a firearm without regard to safety for him and the people around him.
NM: watched the video. While the store may be liable for this, it's largely the officer's fault for not keeping the gun pointed in a safe direction, for not keeping his finger off the trigger, and for not (adequately) inspecting a gun being handed to him.
He should join the real Glasgow (Scotland) police force where all he would get is a baton and a telephone. My pity meter is actually running into the negative reading, if that is possible. I have 18 gazillion (at last count) members of my family in the military/police/prison and almost ZERO of them have ever mishandled a weapon like this clown. Yep - if you can't handle weapons safely, go pound sand.
Yeah, I remember being next to a moron in line for a requalification shoot that kept swinging the fucking pistol around every time he turned his head around. Thankfully he got thrown off the course before I walked off for my own safety.
Saw the same thing at a target competition once. Guy had a jam, and he turned to look at the rest of us and waved his hands around in a "it's not my fault!" gesture. Unfortunately he was still holding a .45 in one of those hands with his finger on the trigger. We all dove for the ground.
I remember reffing a number of NY police departments way back when I used to do the paintball thing. Those were notoriously painful groups to deal with. But the field did make a lot of money on wasted paint even with the discount. The only thing safe in the qwoods was the opponents. I used to know a lot of local cops and state police and actually thought police were good with guns until I saw them at the field. It is why later on when I heard stories of NY police emptying clips at short distances and not hitting the suspect with 40 or fifty shots I was not really surprised. Then there was the cop who brought his service pistol onto the field and proceeded to lose it in the woods. He found it and a pink slip the next day. Oh, and then there was the cop who was checking to see if his PB gun was loaded and proceeded to shoot himself in the facemask. I heard the Thock on a goggle break and knew the stupidity was going to hurtr my brain as I turned around hoping I was not going to have to call for an ambulance. The cop actually thought he was smart for wearing his goggles when he did a stupid thing. I could not disagree with his knowledge of how stupid he was, but I was not viewing that in any complementary fashion. Even the wacked out korean christian groups were less stupid than the NY police who played. The only thing more insane than the p;olice had to be the orthodox jewish kids. They called them the hasedem or something like that.
Yes, ranges are real ammo but they do have laser training aids for practice. But when it's time to "qualify" it's the real deal. Man I loved it when we could score some tracers! For those who have never seen dozens of weapons all firing tracers at the same time you don't know what you are missing. Too bad about the NY cops. Come on down to The South and watch the marksmanship improve significantly!
And you guys wonder why some of us think it's too easy for idiots to get ahold of guns. I hope he was kicked out of the competition.
They are allowed to carry guns? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...the-arming-of-officers-on-routine-patrol.html Only some Glasgow cops have guns. There has to be a high probability of needing it I guess. They don't want to seem "Americanized." Apparently they don't have too many folks there who hate cops and want to kill them and piss on their graves like here in the US. All someone would have to do is find out who is carrying and who isn't and lure them into an ambush and attack them with knives, bats, molotov cocktails, etc. that I'm sure everyone can obtain.
So is the take away that cops and military are fuck ups? Personally I think that the moral here is there are people that aren't always paying attention even when trained - there's quite a few 'cop's gun accidently kills family member' stories out there. The difference between tools and weapons. A hammer can be used to kill someone, but pretty much has to be intended to kill someone for that to happen. A weapon can accidently kill someone with a moment of negligence, and even smart people occasionally do stupid things. The problem is just like drunk driving the 'accident' tends to kill and injure others at often as the person who made the mistake.
Any British police officer can apply to get into the armed response team. Whether or not they are accepted is a different matter. There are plenty UK police officers trained to use firearms.
He should probably sue the gun maker. It was obviously defective if it fired just because Smith cocked it.
This is what I'm trying to understand here: how do you know that a situation warrants an "armed response" until it's too late? In other words a cop without a gun has to say "holy shit! This situation is out of control! I need armed backup" and then the special armed cops show up? And the bad guys are going to hang around waiting for this? Damn, even a routine traffic stop can go south within seconds with no warning when you pull over a felon with a bench warrant out or they have a trunkful of drugs or whatever. You may as well paint a bulls-eye on your back if you police without a gun.
Those types of things happen in America and in Hollywood movies. Sure it can and does happen in the UK but the instances are small. The bullseye comment just shows your lack of understanding about the UK. If it was as you suggest, we would have hundreds of police dead on the job each year.
I recall relating a story about a friend of mine whose cousin was shot dead while sleeping on a couch near Baltimore. I was told that it was impossible - then found a newspaper report of it. And I was told it was impossible that the gun would have gone off if dropped. It must have been a specific act. Good times, good times.
I could see one going off if it's dropped. Not very likely with more modern handguns with passive safety features, but it's still possible enough that it's considered best practice to not go around dropping them.
Yeah, but putting it that way makes it sound like he was at least partially responsible for blowing his own finger off.
I have another friend during my high school days who had a shotgun blow up in his hands when he pulled the trigger. Still has a chunk of his left forearm missing. Got nearly a million dollar settlement after the lawsuit - he used it to follow the dead. Maybe not the most constructive thing to do when you get a big settlement, but he had fun. LOL.
I can't understand how you don't. Cops in America get killed quite often, and they are armed so at least have a chance at defending themselves. Disarm them and holy shit! Instead of "suicide by cop" it would be "suicide by criminal." So you don't have millions of people who are chomping at the bit at the idea of seeing dead cops and who would gladly take advantage if they could get away with it? What a country!
